1. Field
The present application relates generally to the operation of communication systems, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for positioning in a communication system.
2. Background
Data networks, such as wireless communication networks, have to trade off between services customized for a single terminal and services provided to a large number of terminals. For example, the distribution of multimedia content to a large number of resource limited portable devices (subscribers) is a complicated problem. Therefore, it is very important for network administrators, content retailers, and service providers to have a way to distribute content and/or other network services in a fast and efficient manner and in such a way as to increase bandwidth utilization and power efficiency.
In current content delivery/media distribution systems, real time and non real time services are packed into a transmission superframe and delivered to devices on a network. For example, a communication network may utilize Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) to provide communications between a network server and one or more mobile devices. This technology provides a transmission superframe having data slots that are packed with services to be delivered over a distribution network as a transmit waveform.
It has become increasingly desirable to determine the positions of mobile devices in a wireless network. For example, position location can be used in a variety of applications ranging from network performance to user security. One way to provide device positioning is to utilize a satellite positioning system, such as a Global Positioning System (GPS). While this system can be used to provide device positions it is not very robust, since the satellite signals tend to be very weak and may not be received in tunnels, buildings, or in other environments in which mobile devices operate.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a system that operates to determine device positions in a wireless network that overcomes the problems associated with conventional positioning systems.